FSP Blog

In 2019, as many as 135 million people across 55 countries required urgent food, nutrition, and livelihood assistance, according to the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises. This was the highest global number of acutely food-insecure people on record. The GRFC’s mid-year update, released last week, takes a look at recent data for 26 of those countries (plus Togo) and specifically examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The FAO Food Price Index continued its upward trend in September, rising 2.1 percent from the previous month to hit the highest level since February. Cereal prices and vegetable oil prices both contributed to the latest increase. 

This post originally appeared on IFPRI.org .

By: Alan de Brauw, Kalle Hirvonen, and Bashaw Tadesse Abate

This piece originally appeared on IFPRI.org .

By: Julie Kurtz

The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled a number of African agricultural exports, while dependency on food imports and lower purchasing power across much of the continent threaten to push millions more into food insecurity and poverty. A Sept. 17 IFPRI policy seminar , organized with the support of USAID, explored the interaction of the pandemic’s macroeconomic and microeconomic effects, and how Africa must grapple with global and regional markets in order to recover economically.

This piece originally appeared on IFPRI.org .

By Dennis O. Ochieng and Emily Wu